21-Day Spending Detox: Reset to Gain and Maintain Financial Freedom

By Charity A. Morris

New Years Day is no longer the start date to begin your new journey. You can hit the reset button at anytime and NOW is a great time to start on you 2.0. Just as you may feel sluggish after an amazing tour of Italy, where you ate your way through the country, guilty after a magnif

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribe Publications, Inc
• Release date: Feb 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798985385434

Book preview

21-Day Spending Detox:

Reset to Gain and Maintain

Financial Freedom

by

Charity A. Morris

21-Day Spending Detox:

Reset to Gain and Maintain Financial Freedom

Copyright 2022 © Charity A. Morris

All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise - without prior written permission of the copyright owner and/or publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

                Published by 

        Scribe Publications, Inc.

        609-961-1755        www.scribepublicationsinc.com

Unless otherwise identified, scripture quotations are from

the Holy Bible King James Version. Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified Bible,

Copyright (c) 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).   

Scripture quotations noted MSG are from the The Message. Copyright ©

1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

ISBN-13: 979-8-9853854-2-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022914943

Printed in the United States of America 

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my husband, Gary Morris. The countless hours of conversations, the challenges, the combats, the care, and the caress got us to a better place. I love doing life with you. I am forever grateful. 

Acknowledgements

Above all, Jesus, I thank You for grace beyond measure! Through all my shortcomings, victories and opportunities to learn and grow, You continue to give me persistent patience, unfailing love, and  merciful provision. 

To my master negotiator, Hebron, and my spicy firecracker, Hannah the Boss Baby… you are two of my WHYs. I push and persevere because I know the world will be a better place from your influence. Keep shining and excelling my beautiful babies. Your future is bright. 

To my money mentors in my head, Janai Thornton and Dave Ramsey, I have listened to your programs over the years and have applied your wisdom. IT

REALLY WORKS! 

To three of the ones who have opened my eyes to the limitless world of financial independence: Thaxter Arteberry, Dotch Phillips and Veronica Moore. Our countless conversations were part of the inspiration to get me where I am today. Thank you for challenging me to do my best and be my best.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

PREFACE

PHASE 1 REFLECT

DAY 1: Looking Back to Move Forward

DAY 2: YOUR MONEY MINDSET

DAY 3: EMOTIONAL SPENDING

DAY 4: DECLUTTER AND PURGE

DAY 5: MARRIAGE AND MONEY

DAY 6: WHAT IS YOUR WHY

DAY 7: PREPARING FOR INCREASE

PHASE 2 REDIRECT

DAY 8: BABY STEPS

DAY 9: Giving Life to Leftovers and Lists

DAY 10: INVITE GOD INTO YOUR FINANCES

DAY 11: THE BUDGET BATTLE

DAY 12: SAVING FOR OPPORTUNITIES, NOT JUST A RAINY DAY

DAY 13: Consider Going Cash-Only.

DAY 14: REDUCE DEBT TO INCOME RATIO

DAY 15: GIVE YOURSELF A RAISE

DAY 16 FINANCIAL FREEDOM. REAL #LifeGoals.

DAY 17: ADDITIONAL STREAMS OF INCOME

PHASE 3 RECONCILE

DAY 18: THE POWER OF NO

DAY 19: FINANCIAL DREAM TEAM

DAY 20: FAITH IT!

DAY 21: BUILD A LEGACY

FINAL WORD

REFERENCES

BIOGRAPHY

FOREWORD

As an investment strategist and behavioral economist at Decimalytics, I notice individuals, not just in households but also many small business owners we serve, irrationally spend without regard for their finances to fill a void. I also notice the same individuals complain about lacking support to meet financial obligations. I see the same behavior in highly functional, successful people I work with globally. Quite often, many are not aware of the lack of financial responsibility practiced daily, which leads to the conversation within this book.

Although I have an academic and professional background in finance, I, too, was a victim of poor financial management at some point. Like many, I was consumed with the here and now instead of the outcome of my decisions. I later learned that I am not the only one who falls victim to late notices and indecisive budgets while looking good on the outside, knowing my daily financial decisions were tearing up the truth about myself.

Managing household finances is hard, even for people who know exactly what to do. The proof is in the pudding; as I learned, in 2022, consumer spending reached an all-time high of $13916.87 billion. We often wonder why individuals are significantly evolving more into consumers instead of producers. The thought behind this behavior is that individuals, including relatively successful people, place more value on material possessions and the connection between satisfaction and normal goods.

The first step to addressing individuals disconnect with their money is to examine the difference between needs and wants while tracking their spending to acknowledge the why behind the behavior.

First, one concedes that wealth is emphasized the most regardless of socioeconomic class. Wealth is identified by the total of tangible and intangible assets one acquires over time. What many are not taught is that wealth will include liabilities.

How did society become a place where debt is highly noted across the United States? Quickly, most were taught to live the American Dream regardless of how much it may impact their finances. From youth, parents teach their children to get an education, work at a job until retirement, buy a large house, and buy a luxury vehicle. The least expected conversation concerns proper money management and how tangible items may connect to emotional spending.

Charity Morris’s book is a treasure of financial possibilities for growth. Such a book was a long time coming, given that many spend more than we earn. This book is a gem to emphasize how we need to detox from spending to acknowledge our faults and take control of our finances.

Bahiyah Shabazz, MBA, Doctoral Candidate

Investment Strategist. Economist. Author. Speaker.

Founder of Decimalytics and Brown Girls Do Invest

PREFACE

It’s time for you to control-alt-delete your money mindset.

It’s time to turn on yourself to help yourself.

It’s time to take ownership of where you are.

IT’S TIME TO FACE YOUR FINANCES.

Are your finances all over the place? Do you pay your bills the day they’re due or even afterwards? Do you lose track of all those due dates? Or perhaps you’ve been wanting to start an emergency fund, but every time you plan to open the account, an emergency derails your savings plan.

The mere thought of discussing money makes some stress and break out in a cold sweat. Classic avoidance has been the modus operandi for others. Yet there are those who say they need to change but do not take the necessary steps to change. None of these will give you the needful results of a healthy financial future. 

If you’re not transparent about your current financial status, the probability of you falling into unfortunate (and credit-damaging) habits is highly likely. 

ASK ME HOW I KNOW! I was intimately acquainted with the struggle. I lived from paycheck to paycheck, hoping and praying no emergencies popped up that would send me into a tailspin. I wholeheartedly believed  I was doing ok when I was able to pay my bills. But the wind was knocked out of me when I was no longer working, and I had to live off my savings.

I quickly realized I was not adequately prepared for the storm. I was too busy living for the moment instead of preparing for the future. 

Through many tears, lost battles, repeated lessons and forced reality check, I saw that the real enemy was M-E! I was fighting against my own forward progress. I blamed others for my mess because it couldn’t possibly be me. Nah, not the kid! It just couldn’t be the lack of balanced accounts, lack of emergency funds or the delinquent payments that got me to where I was. It wasn’t the frivolous spending, emotional purchases, and impulse buys. It wasn’t the expensive trips, the